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262 How Are the Christian Scriptures Confirmed by the Peculiar Glory of God?
This extraordinary saltiness and brightness in the glory of the disciples’
lives is the reflected radiance of the glory of Christ, mediated
through the words of God. This is true not only for us who know the
glory of Christ through the inspired narratives of his followers, but
also for those who followed him in his earthly days. They too were dependent
on the words of the Lord for their transformation. They knew
him not only because of what he did but also because of what he said.
Christ Gave Them the Words of God and the Glory of God
We see this in Jesus’s prayer in John 17: “I have given them your word,
and the world has hated them because they are not of the world, just as I
am not of the world” (v. 14). It was the word of God through Jesus that
transformed the disciples so that they were out of step with the world.
This is perhaps what Jesus has in mind when he says, “The glory that
you [Father] have given me I have given to them” (v. 22). The glory that
rested on Jesus was reflected in the disciples. And parallel to this were
the words: “I have given them the words that you gave me” (v. 8). So
Jesus gave the words of God to his disciples and the glory of God to his
disciples, and thus they were radically out of step with the world. And
some hated them. And some believed.
And their Christ-dependent joy in spite of mistreatment has the same
origin, namely, in Christ’s words. In the prayer of John 17, Jesus says,
“These things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled
in themselves” (v. 13). Again in John 15:11, he says the same thing:
“These things I have spoken to you, that my joy may be in you, and that
your joy may be full.” Notice, the joy of the disciples is not just a joy in
response to Jesus. It is the very joy of Jesus in them. Yet Jesus says it is
owing to “these things I have spoken.” Which means, therefore, that the
joy that Jesus experiences becomes the joy that the disciples experience,
mediated to them through his words.
Joy That Sustains Love in Suffering
This Christ-dependent, Christ-displaying joy is a joy in spite of mistreatment.
And for both Jesus and the disciples, it flows from the hope of
the glory of God. “For the joy that was set before him [he] endured the
cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne